Out of Shape Worse than Before

Monday, June 17, 2013

I am trying to put a little more time and effort into helping myself, since I have been expending so much time and energy on my kids lately. Today I finally started in on the lawn, as much for myself as for the lawn itself.

I have a gigantic lawn, and, at the best of times, it takes several days to get it all mowed, just because it is so big the mower gets too hot after awhile and refuses to re-start. In theory, I don't mind mowing, because it is decent exercise, and not too difficult nor painful. However, in ninety-plus degree weather, I mind mowing. I mind anything outdoors in temps like that.

Well, lately we have had an unusually large amount of rain, and, unfortunately for me, it mostly occurred towards the end of the day, for way too many days in a row. When I do have to mow, I prefer to mow at the end of the day, since the sun is much less intense. It's less intense and also cooler in the morning as well, but the grass is always wet in the mornings so mowing isn't an option then.

So, to get to my original point, for quite a few days in a row, I would be planning to mow at the end of the day, and then not be able to because of rain. The net result was long grass in the front yard, and hugely overgrown tall weeds in the back yard. Today I tackled the front yard and maybe one fourth of the back yard.

I was very unpleasantly surprised at how exhausted I was, and how very hard I found it to keep going with the mower. I have become much more out of shape than I was the last time I mowed, which really wasn't that long ago. This is probably at least partly because the dog has had some health issues, specifically arthritis in her spine, which led to our not being allowed to walk her for over a month. Since I was always the one who walked her, that cut out a large part of the (minimal) exercise I would regularly get.

After finishing the portion of yard I had mowed, I made myself walk the dog on her usual route. I was so exhausted I could hardly force one foot in front of the other, but I did finally make it. It's a start, and I am going to continue. I don't want to be wheelchair bound just because I was too lazy to get off my behind and exercise.

BLITZEN40
Way to go getting out there cutting all that grass when it seemed like it would be an overwhelming task.. and also walking your dog again too, even when you were really tired. Mowing a huge lawn is great exercise.. I used to do it when my kids were newborns and it helped me lose my baby weight. We've since moved, our lawn is not so big and DH finally took over the mowing. Good job getting back on track with the exercise! 1522 days ago